Public patience with Ghana’s latest fuel levy may hold for now, but it is not infinite. That’s the warning from Duncan Amoah, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), who believes the country is once again relying on short-term fixes without addressing the fundamental issues in the power sector.
He pointed to the recently introduced Energy Sector Recovery Levy as another attempt to raise funds through taxation, this time, to help settle energy sector debts and keep the lights on. But in his view, this approach is only buying time, not solving the problem.
“At some point, this tax will have to go,” Amoah cautioned in an interview with The High Street Journal. “Ghanaians won’t tolerate it forever. The current economic conditions may allow for a little breathing room, but the structural inefficiencies are still there.”
He acknowledged that the country needs funds to support energy delivery, but warned that money alone cannot fix what is broken. The real challenge, he said, lies in governance, accountability, and deep-rooted inefficiencies within the system.
“We need to fix the root causes. Until the heavy lifting is done, until we address the governance failures and the lack of transparency, we will keep coming back to the same place,” Amoah said.
For him, the path to sustainable energy security doesn’t lie in levies that strain the public, but in reforms that eliminate waste, ensure efficiency, and restore trust. He urged decision-makers to begin the harder work now, while there is still space to do so gradually, before public tolerance runs out.
